I
don't know what his
immigration status is, but he
is a bad
boy--
Abraham Foxman, national
director of the
Anti-Defamation League

February
8, 2003

Reknowned
Neo-Nazi activist held in Blount County
jail

by Anna C. Irwin
of The Daily Times
Staff

A
GERMAN national known for his claim there
was no mass extermination of Jews before
and during World War II is being held at
the Blount County Jail.

Ernst Christof Friedrich
Zündel, 63, has been called
'Canada's leading pro-Nazi and
Holocaust-denial propagandist' by the
Anti-Defamation
League, an organization founded to
combat anti-Semitism.

Zündel is being held for the
Immigration and Naturalization Service
pending action regarding an alleged
immigration violation. He was taken in
custody Wednesday at his home in Wear's
Valley.

Sevier County Chief Deputy Doug
Watson and Sgt. Darrel Lee
accompanied INS agents led by Gary
Slaybough who made the arrest.

Slaybough, head of the INS office in
Knoxville, said the arrest was made
without resistance. Sarah Mouw, a
spokesman for the INS district office in
New Orleans said Zündel is 'not in a
legal immigration status. In layman's
terms, it is an expired visa.'

Zündel's wife, Dr. Ingrid
Rimland Zündel, said in a report
on the Web site dedicated to Zündel's
activities that her husband was told he
had failed to show up at a scheduled
immigration hearing in May 2001. She said
they were never notified of a hearing.

The Zündels left Canada and moved
to Sevier County in early 2001 after
several lengthy court battles, some
regarding his publishing activities
including books, pamphlets and videos with
titles such as 'Did Six Million Really
Die?' and 'The Hitler We Loved and
Why.'

The verdict in
one of his most recent court battles
denied his bid for Canadian
citizenship. He has lived in Montreal
and Toronto since immigrating in 1958
at age 19 to avoid the draft in his
native Germany.

His autobiography 'Zündel-Haus'
published on Zündelsite, a Internet
site maintained by his wife, said he had
been taught to 'hate Hitler and all
he stood for and had been brainwashed by
Allied occupation authorities-produced
books in post-war German Schools.'

However, he said in the autobiography
he learned after he came to Canada how to
'counter the poison, the false picture of
history.' He worked as a graphic artist
and eventually founded Samisdat Publishers
Ltd. The company was known as a major
outlet for Holocaust-denial materials.

Website
note: Abraham Foxman,
wealthy and controversial chief
of the Anti Defamation League,
likes to refer to himself as a
"Holocaust survivor." As a
biography
on this website shows, he was not
even born when Hitler invaded his
native Poland, and he was looked
after by Polish Catholics
throughout the war; his parents
also "survived".

Zündel no longer publishes such
materials, but his Web site is considered
by the Anti-Defamation League as a
'repository of Holocaust-denial
propaganda.'

The Canadian government tried to shut
down the Web site based on the Canadian
Human Rights Act. A tribunal ruled in
January 2002 that it is illegal to create
and maintain a 'hate' site in Canada.
'Zündelsite' now operates from the
United States and is updated regularly by
Zündel's wife and lists a Pigeon
Forge address to send donations.

The INS would not say if or when
Zündel may be scheduled for a court
appearance, possibly in the nearest
immigration court at Memphis or in the
court serving the district office in New
Orleans.

'I don't know what his immigration
status is, but he is a bad boy,'
Abraham Foxman, national director
of the Anti-Defamation League, said in an
interview with Knoxville-based Associated
Press writer Duncan Mansfield from
the group's New York headquarters.

'He is an anti-Semite, a Holocaust
denier. He is somebody America could do
without,' Foxman said, 'but I am sure his
legal rights will be
protected.'